Lead Generation & Budget by Mode of Business

B2B companies get twice as many leads from telemarketing than B2C companies do (8% versus 4%).

B2C companies get 3X more leads than B2B companies do through traditional advertising (9% versus 4%).

The best three lead sources for B2B companies are SEO (14%), email marketing, (13%), and social media (12%).

The best three lead sources for B2C companies are social media (17%), SEO (16%), and email marketing (15%).

The worst three lead sources for B2B companies are traditional advertising (3%), PPC (6%), and direct mail (6%).

The worst three lead sources for B2C companies are telemarketing (3%), trade shows (6%), and PPC (6%).

Notable Findings:

B2B companies are allocating 12% of their budget to trade shows but only getting 9% of their leads from that source.

B2B companies are getting 14% of their leads from SEO but only allocating 12% of their budget to that source.

B2B companies are allocating 8% of their budget to PPC but only getting 6% of their leads from that source.

B2C companies are getting 15% of their leads from SEO but only allocating 13% of their budget to that source.

B2C companies are allocating 13% of their budget to traditional advertising but only getting 9% of their leads from that source.

Lead Generation & Budget by Company Size

Notable Findings:

With direct mail, trade shows, telemarketing, and traditional advertising, the bigger the company, the more likely they are to get leads from the aforementioned tactics.

Small companies are more than twice as likely to get leads from social media than large companies (18% versus 7%).

Large companies are almost three times as likely to get leads from traditional advertising than small companies (11% versus 4%).

Notable Findings:

9% of small business leads are from blogging, and they are allocating 12% of their budget toward this lead source.

15% of leads from medium-sized companies are from SEO, but they are only allocating 12% of their budget to this source.

12% of leads from large companies are from SEO, but they are only allocating 9% of their budget towards this source. 11% of their leads are from traditional advertising, but they are allocating 15% of their budget to this lead source.

Lead Generation & Budget by Industry

Notable Findings:

The Nonprofit/Edu space and the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services industry get more leads through direct mail than their counterparts — 13% and 11%, respectively.

The Technology (Hardware) industry gets at least double the number of leads (24%) through trade shows compared to the other industries represented.

Marketing agencies get the most leads from blogging compared to the other industries.

The Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry gets 19% of its leads from social media, the most when compared to the other industries surveyed.

The Technology (Software) industry gets 16% of its leads from SEO, the leader with respect to the other industries surveyed.

Notable Findings:

In the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services sphere, only 6% of leads come from PPC, but they are still allocating 9% of their lead generation budget toward this lead source.

Marketing agencies are allocating 14% of their lead generation budget toward blogging.

In the Nonprofit/Edu space, only 11% of leads come from traditional advertising, but they are still allocating 16% of their budget toward this source.

In the PR/Communications/Media sphere, only 4% of leads come from PPC, but they’re allocating 7% of their lead generation money toward this source.

In the Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry, 10% of leads come from traditional advertising, and they are allocating 14% of their budget toward this source.

In the Technology (Hardware) space, 16% of leads come from email marketing, and 12% of their budget goes toward this source.

In the Technology (Software) industry, 13% of leads come from trade shows, and they are putting 17% of their budget toward this source.

Lead Generation & Budget by Location

Notable Findings:

U.S. companies get more leads than international companies for the following sources: trade shows, email marketing, and social media.

International companies get more leads than U.S. companies for the following sources: direct mail, blogs, SEO, PPC, and traditional advertising.

Notable Findings:

International companies get 6% of their leads from PPC but are still allocating 9% of their budget towards this lead source.

U.S. companies get 13% of their leads from SEO but are only allocating 10% of their budget toward this source.

Average Cost per Lead Benchmark Data

Notable Findings:

B2B companies have a significantly higher cost per lead ($43) in comparison to B2C companies ($15).

Medium companies have the lowest cost per lead ($19) in comparison to small ($31) and large ($38) companies.

Marketing agencies have the highest cost per lead ($58) whereas the Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry has the lowest cost per lead ($6).

U.S. companies have the highest cost per lead ($40); LATAM has the lowest cost per lead ($15).

Travis Piepho is a founding partner at Prospectr Marketing. Prospectr Marketing is a premier lead generation company focused on providing demand generation from start to finish for its clients on a performance-based model.